Biological Sciences Division Staff Awards & Honors

Keqi Tang and Ryan Kelly Win Technology Transfer Award

Congratulations to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists Dr. Keqi Tang and Dr. Ryan Kelly, and commercialization manager Bruce Harrer, who have received a 2012 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium. They transferred a method to manufacture emitters for mass spectrometry to Bruker-Michrom of Auburn, Calif. Michrom is a joint recipient of the award with PNNL.

Tang and Kelly are co-inventors, along with Battelle Fellow Dr. Dick Smith and former PNNL scientist Dr. Jason Page, of the chemically etched emitters, which were first developed in 2006. Emitters are used in the ionization process in mass spectrometers. The improved emitter developed at PNNL enables more robust sample analysis by the mass spectrometer, which helps scientists learn more about the molecules they study.

The team will receive the award at the FLC Annual Meeting May 3 in Pittsburgh. The consortium is a nationwide network that encourages federal laboratories to transfer lab-developed technologies to commercial markets.